
I was walking my girl right up until she went into actual labour. We kept it road walks towards the end as we live near the beach and any water was strictly off limits & as my girl lives for water, I didn't think it fair. As long as she got out a couple of times a day, had a chance to get some fresh air and stretch her legs and more importantly a change of scene, I was fine with it (and I'm sure so was she). Some days we didn't get far, but I would invariably stop to chat while she watched the world go past.
Incidentally, she whelped 3 of the 7 pups out in the garden - we just encouraged her to go out there and it worked like magic!! Just remember to be standing right there with clean towels just in case you have to catch one coming out...lol!!!
She whelped a little over a week ago, and I've just started to take her out once a day just road walking at the moment, but she's thoroughly enjoying the change of scene, and once she's wiped off carefully, she can go back in with the pups. We don't have a large garden but I think the change of scene does us all the world of good. I know there are many breeders who would not advocate taking a bitch with puppies off the premises at all while there are puppies in the nest, but I think you have to be led by your girl, I'm sure cabin fever sets in with them just like it does with us!! My girl would be standing next to my boy when the leads come out, mind you, a couple of days after giving birth, I'm sure she'd have a sharp u-turn the minute she would have gotten out of the door! She's much more relaxed now, isn't racing straight back into the whelping box, and I'm sure she trusts us!